Swine stench inspires documentary film

By Henry Liverman

What smells like manure to some smells like cash to others.

Tom Clement and Sol Weiner’s documentary, “Swine Country: The Fight for Clean Air and Water in Duplin County, N.C.,” which screened at University of North Carolina Wilmington’s King Hall Auditoriam Wednesday, May 28, works to reveal the effects of industrial-scale hog farming operations on Duplin County’s air, water and residents, and the ongoing struggle to improve these conditions.

The most significant cause of pollution in North Carolina is Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), like ones in Duplin County. The film focuses on the waste produced by this large-scale farming and its impact on the residents who live in the waste of the CAFOs, as these facilities are not in any way removed from the population.

The number of Duplin County farms has plummeted since the adoption of the CAFO system in the late 1980s, but the number of hogs has skyrocketed. With the advent and expansion of these corporate farms comes a growing contempt and alarm from those living in the shadow of these behemoth factories.

“Take [people] on a tour of Duplin, then they’ll see,” said Devon Hall, “Swine Country” co-producer and co-founder of the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH).

Founded in 2002, REACH has been working to end the current practices of these farms that they see as oppressive to the residents. Due to poor waste management systems such as the disposal of dead hogs in open bins known as dead boxes, the disposal of animal waste into isolated lagoons or cesspools, and use of manure spray on vast fields, the CAFOs pollute Duplin County’s air and water.

This precarious system is set up to fail, the documentary points out, as the cesspools have the potential to flood wastes into the Cape Fear waterways — which, after Hurricane Floyd, is exactly what happened.

The documentary states with the CAFOs so close to populated areas, their pollution causes an overwhelming stench, skin sores on children, residents’ reluctance to leave their homes and an increase of respiratory diseases. But Hall stated what residents smell and what CAFO owners smell as they drive through the county are two different things, with one man’s manure being another’s profits.

Larry Baldwin, CAFO coordinator with the Waterkeeper Alliance, a group affiliated with REACH, stated new and safer methods of factory farming have been researched and found to be successful. But they have not been adopted. Smithfield Foods states they would not be economically feasible, even though last year Smithfield posted record high profits. It has since been bought out by a Chinese company, raising further questions as to the potential of change in farming policy.

Gray Jernigan, staff attorney for the Waterkeeper Alliance, stated, “There have been no direct legal successes. … Solutions to put a stop to the pollution are still being debated.”

However, more and more dissatisfied citizens of Duplin County are raising their voices in protest of the CAFO’s practices, which Hall said is a very important thing.

“If we want change, it’ll take time, it’ll take all of us working together. There’s a process,” Hall said, and emphasized he’s not espousing closing all CAFOs, but rather fixing them and the communities around them.

REACH continues to spread its message and connect to similar groups through public relations campaigns and social media.

“You can’t force change, but you can’t quit,” Hall said.

As support for REACH and affiliated groups grows, so does pressure to enact legislation for change in CAFO practices in Duplin County and across North Carolina.